


The Other Half

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Bodyswap, F/M, First Kiss, M/M, Post-Star Wars Rebels: Heroes of Mandalore, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:55:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29415978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: During yet another mission gone wrong, the team switches bodies.
Relationships: Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla
Comments: 8
Kudos: 55
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	The Other Half

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Measured_Words](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured_Words/gifts).



One of these days Kallus was going to learn the words "this will be a simple mission" were always a lie, no matter if the person briefing him was an Imperial agent or a bright-eyed revolutionary in the Rebellion. Bridger and Wren were undercover meeting a contact with intel the Rebels wanted, and they'd taken the evil little astromech with them in the Phantom. Simple enough. Hera had received word of some new military tech on the other side of the same planet, and the four of them had gone to retrieve it. Also simple. The item had been guarded by a small squad of stormtroopers. Not an issue.

The device had blown up during the firefight.

Kallus rubbed his head and groaned. He cleared his throat, then cleared it again. Everything ached, and he thought he must have been injured in the blast. His vision cleared, and he stared at his hand.

It was purple, tipped with claws.

He fell back on the ground amid the rubble, breath coming in gasps in lungs he was suddenly aware of inside his own huge chest. He turned his head desperately, and saw himself on the ground close by, grunting before his own eyes came open with a snap. "What the…."

He tried to get to his feet, but the legs under him weren't levered in the same way he was used to, and he fell. "Ow."

His own body's head snapped over to look at him, and his own eyes widened, staring his way.

"There has to be a logical explanation," he said out loud, and yes, that was Zeb's voice, low and reverberating in his own head, and even more wrong coming out with his own well-cultured Core vowels rather than a coarse Lasat accent.

His body stretched and gingerly stood, also unused to those knees and ankles under him. He approached Kallus, and after a moment, thrust out a hand. Kallus reached up and took it, seeing the purple against his own paler skin as he was pulled to his feet. "Zeb?" he asked. His body nodded back at him. "Right. You're me. I'm you. What in blazes was that thing?"

"Dunno." He turned and walked with his strange, uncertain gait over to where the other two members of their team were only now stirring back to consciousness. He bent down to Kanan, shaking his shoulder. "Hey. You all right?"

Kanan twisted his head around as he sat up, and his eyes drifted open. He passed his hand in front of his face. "I can't see," he said, in a tone that said he was not going to panic about that fact but only because he had decided not to. A second later he grabbed at his own throat. "What?"

Zeb patted his shoulder. "It's all right," he said, and Kanan cringed away from him. But it wasn't Kanan, and she didn't know it wasn't Kallus touching her.

Kallus made his way to where Hera's form was rousing awake, and said, "If you are who I think you are, I have some good news for you. And then again, I have some bad news."

Hera's eyes opened. "Huh." Like the rest of them, a hand instantly came up. Bright green eyes landed on Kallus's face, taking in Zeb's features for a long moment.

"All right," said Kanan out of Hera's mouth. "What just happened?" He turned to see his own head snap over to the sound.

Kallus said, "Hera, did you have any information about what this piece of equipment was supposed to do?"

"There wasn't much in the briefing." She shuddered at her own deep voice. Then she cleared her throat. "It was described as an espionage device." She tried to stand, clearly unhappy at Zeb's help, turning her head from side to side.

Kanan got to his own feet, a little off-balance himself in the new body. At least Twi'leks and humans were closer in species to each other than they were to Lasats. Kanan reached her side and relieved Zeb. "Hey, it's me."

"Kanan?"

"Yeah. I had trouble getting around at first after I lost my sight. You remember."

She nodded. "You had the Force to help you."

"Funny thing," he said, and his apologetic tone sounded strange in her mouth. "Because I've been trying to reach out the Force since we woke up, and I can't."

Kallus left them there, not sure he wanted to listen in on a very quick lesson on how to use magic powers he didn't have in either body. He made his legs work, walking past the still-stunned stormtroopers to where Zeb bent over the broken device and was prodding at it. "Any ideas?"

"Nah. Just looking." He started collecting the pieces. "We should take these with us. Maybe Sabine can figure out how to put them back together."

Espionage. Fascinating. He hadn't heard about anything like this when he'd still been in the ISB. A device that could switch bodies between your spy and your enemy? That would be incredibly valuable.

Kallus noticed a piece that had been wrenched free. He brought it to his face. Zeb's eyes turned out to be much sharper than his own, seeing details he could never have observed. "This looks older than the rest. Much older."

Zeb peered at the piece, then shook his head. "Glad you can see it."

Kallus took out the carryall he'd brought to collect the device and began loading the pieces. "Kanan should have jumped into your body. You've got stellar vision."

"I guess. Never thought about it." He went to pick up the base, and struggled with the weight. Kallus leaned over, lifting it easily and carrying it on one broad shoulder. "Heh," said Zeb. "You can barely see, you can't pick things up. Is this what all humans are like?"

Kallus scowled at him, and recognized the teasing smirk even on his own features. "It's true. We're the weaklings of the galaxy, but we never let on in case the other species notice."

"We've noticed," said Hera, joining them with a tight grip on Kanan's arm. "What did you find?"

"A mess," said Zeb.

Kanan spied around for other debris from the device, finding two more small twisted hunks of metal. "This does not look good." He dropped them into Zeb's hand, who took the carryall from Kallus and put them away.

"We should go," Hera said firmly. "We don't want to be here when they wake up."

They made their way out of the facility together. Kallus noticed the base he carried was heavy, but not as bad as he thought it might be. No wonder Zeb had been able to carry him up out of the pit they'd fallen into on that moon. He'd learned a little about Lasats prior to that last brutal invasion, but the Empire had described them as barbarous savages, lumbering and stupid. He'd learned differently, to his shame, and now as he walked in Zeb's body, he discovered the strength was an amazing asset.

The Ghost was hidden close by. They boarded. Kallus set his burden down on the deck as Kanan and Hera headed towards the cockpit, arguing amiably over who was going to fly the ship. "I've flown your ship plenty of times, dear," he said.

"Yes, and we're still repairing the scrapes, dear," she replied, and then the hatch closed.

Suddenly he was exhausted. He rested against the bulkhead, sinking down. Zeb came over and sat next to him. "Tired?"

"Yes." He shook his head to clear it.

"You'll want to eat something soon. I can do a lot, but I have to keep up my strength." He looked at the pink hand with its blunt fingers, and he sighed. "I can't climb with these. Not sure what I can do."

"Your human friends get along fine with human fingers."

"Yeah, but they're used to them." He waved towards the cockpit. "Kanan's been using the Force since he was a kid. If Hera tries it, she might blow up the ship. No time to practice, see?"

The ship lifted off, and headed off towards space. Kallus felt the shift from planetary gravity to artificial gravity, the bulk of his new body twisting uncomfortably. "I do hope Sabine can fix the device." He looked at Zeb beside him. "Why aren't you upset by all this?"

He shrugged, and even in the human body, the shrug was all Zeb. "It's not half the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me."

Kallus leaned back, the bulkhead cool against his head. He'd thought about the Lasat genocide, and now his mind kept circling back. He'd been party to the destruction of all those people. Perhaps this was the Force's idea of cosmic justice: to spend the rest of his days inside a Lasat's body.

"It would figure that my first mission with your team would end in disaster."

"Well, yeah. I kinda expected it."

Mildly hurt, and knowing he had no right to be hurt, he scowled at Zeb again, but there was no malice on the face, and he knew his own face well enough to know where to look.

Zeb said, "Most of our missions end in some disaster or another. Somebody gets hurt. Lot of people get killed. We left Atollon with half our forces." He jerked a thumb towards the cockpit. "There's somebody in a human body up front who can't see because of a mission that went bad. You learn to expect some kind of disaster."

He leaned back again. "The more I learn about the Rebellion, the more I wonder how you managed to defeat me every time."

"Easy. Your luck is even worse than ours." He stood and helped Kallus up. "Let's get some grub."

Kallus followed him up the ladder. "You don't mean actual grubs, correct?"

Zeb shook his head with a sigh. "Just come on. We'll meet up with Sabine and Ezra in a little bit. Better to do it on a full stomach while they're laughing at us."

They went to the ship's little galley, where Zeb pulled out a couple of waffles from the preserver and started warming them. "You'll want to eat a few of these every day. Human rations packs don't have all the vitamins you need."

"You think it could be days?"

The shrug again. Zeb was maddeningly sanguine about their situation. "Maybe." He dropped a plate in front of Kallus then awkwardly sat down across from him, still trying to sort out his legs. "We don't know, right? So it's not worth worrying about."

"You amaze me. Have I ever told you that?" He took a bite of the waffles. Lasat taste buds were also more intense than human ones. He saw the same realization roll over Zeb's borrowed face as he reached for the seasonings. "You've been through so much, yet you're serene about what's happened, and you still keep fighting the good fight. I don't think I could do the same."

"Well, here's your chance. Now you can walk a click in my skin, and I can do the same in yours."

He finished his meal. He did feel better. "Should we check on our ETA?"

They left the dishes into the small sink and went to the cockpit, which was empty. The ship was in high orbit, safely away from Imperial eyes. "Where's Hera?"

He hadn't seen either of the others as they'd passed through from the living area to the cabins. The cockpit hatch looked out on three open cabin doors. Hera's door was shut. Zeb glanced at it and glanced away again, the slightest smirk on his currently human lips. Kallus cleared his throat. "I did have a note in both their files, back in the day. There was no direct evidence, obviously, and some of my superiors dismissed the idea after they found out Kanan was a Jedi."

"Yeah, well," he said, which was no explanation at all. A new expression crossed his face. "What did your files say about me?"

"Oh, nothing much," he said too quickly, and could tell Zeb recognized a lie on his own face. "Anyway I deleted most of my files before I left."

"They didn't notice?"

"I replaced the text with gibberish. Unless they were looking, it would seem my files had been corrupted."

"Now they know it was your head that got corrupted instead," said Zeb, running a playful hand over the strange wispy fur currently at the top of Kallus's head.

"By you."

"I'll take the credit."

"Blame."

"Whatever," Zeb said with another amused grin.

"You keep smiling at me. It's weird."

"Now you know how I feel when you're smiling at me." Zeb fake-shuddered. He was enjoying this. "Nah, I was just thinking, you're not such a pain in the rear when you're a Lasat."

"I'm exactly the same person I was."

"Maybe I didn't notice before what with all that trying to kill us business." The humor was thick in his voice, which still sounded strange in Zeb's accent, but Kallus was getting used to it, and to Zeb's comfort inside Kallus's skin. The thought led to others, which he pushed away, even as his eyes were drawn back to Hera's closed cabin door.

"You think they're in there actually...." The mental image wouldn't leave him.

Zeb turned and looked again. "Yeah, probably. It's fine. They're both always in better moods after."

He supposed he couldn't blame them. How often did any of them get an opportunity to find out how the other half lived, as it were? He looked at his own face again, looking out at the stars. He'd always been happy enough with his own appearance, indulging in a little vanity over the years. He saw those years on his features now, stamped with loss and struggle, but the person wearing them had the most accepting expression of hope he'd ever thought to see in his own eyes. He could consider himself handsome in a dispassionate way. Watching Zeb wear his body, he looked almost beautiful.

"You all right?"

"Just thinking," said Kallus. He swallowed, and felt Zeb's throat lurch. "They might be on to something. When will any of us get an opportunity like this again?"

"Like what?"

They looked at each other for a moment. Kallus looked away first. "Just thinking, that was all."

Understanding dawned in Zeb's eyes. "Oh, you mean." He shut his mouth. Now his whole body seethed with discomfort, and Kallus regretted bringing it up.

"Sorry," he said, or tried to say, but he was speaking into the sudden presence of his own mouth pressed against, well, his own mouth. Zeb was a terrible kisser, either because Lasats didn't kiss, or because he didn't know how his new body worked, or because he was simply bad at it. Then he turned his head, and moved his mouth and made the kiss much dirtier and Kallus stopped thinking, wrapping his over-sized purple arms around him.

They broke the kiss for air after a while, resting against each other. Zeb said, "You wanted that?"

Kallus wanted all sorts of things. He'd never even seen a Lasat in the nude, and had no idea what was down his own trousers at the moment, but there was a pleasant stirring in his groin that boded well. "It's a good start."

The comm beeped. They both stared at the blinking light. Zeb said, "You better answer. Try to sound like me." Kallus sighed inwardly but was pleased to see Zeb was somewhat out of breath still.

He flipped the switch. "Ghost here," he said.

"Phantom ready to rendezvous," said Sabine over the comm. "Are you all right? Where's Hera?"

The cabin door was still closed. "Busy. We'll meet you at the coordinates. Ghost out."

Zeb slid into the pilot's seat and reached for the controls. Kallus sat down in the co-pilot's seat. "Are you sure you can fly this?"

"Hera made sure we all could fly the ship. Doesn't mean she's happy about it."

The ship jerked as they left orbit. Thirty seconds later, the cabin door opened. Kanan's body stepped out, placing an unsteady hand against the wall. "Who's flying my ship?"

"It's fine," Zeb said. "Ezra and Sabine are ready to rendezvous." Kallus noted that he thickened his accent slightly, to reassure her who was who. A moment later, Hera's body exited the cabin, and Kallus didn't miss the extra tug at the fastener for the top of the orange flight suit. Kanan's pleased smirk looked out of place on Hera's face, and Kallus turned away from the strange sight as Kanan took her arm again, helping her into the cockpit.

"I can get around my own ship," she said to Kanan, but didn't release his arm until she'd found a chair.

"And you'll get around even better when I show you how to use those powers you're borrowing. But for now, Zeb, let me fly." The chair was set up to fit Hera's body like a glove, and Kanan slipped into it comfortably, checking the systems over before taking them to the rendezvous point. As soon as the Phantom came into range, he opened the comms. "Prepare to dock."

"Ready," Sabine said, and brought the other ship in smoothly.

The duo disembarked, bringing Chopper with them, and more importantly, the disc containing the information they'd been sent to fetch. Zeb said, "At least your mission went well."

"Why?" asked Ezra. "What did we miss?"

"A lot," said Kanan, taking Sabine's arm and leading her towards the cargo bay. "We need your help. The device we were retrieving broke. Chopper, you come, too." The droid, most likely to obey an order from Hera's mouth, followed with less bad grace than usual.

Ezra looked back at Kallus. "Seriously, what did we miss?"

Kallus looked at Zeb, who shrugged again.

* * *

About an hour later, Sabine and Kanan emerged from the cargo bay with the device in hand. "Got it," Kanan said. "You two didn't tell me part of the thing was an old Jedi artifact."

Zeb said, "How in blazes would we know that?"

"I took a good look," he said, ignoring the point, "and Sabine managed to get the thing back together."

"You say back together, I say I'm not so sure about this. It could make your situation worse."

"How much worse?" Hera asked, standing in the corridor, hand against the bulkhead.

"It could kill you."

Ezra said, "Maybe we should hold off."

"No," said Kallus. "We should test it. Zeb?"

"Right," said Zeb. They stepped next to each other, and Zeb placed a hand on his shoulder. They'd been touching when the thing went off last time, Kallus remembered. That must be the reason they'd switched.

"Are you sure?" Sabine asked.

"Sure enough," said Kallus. "If it doesn't work, you can keep tinkering before you try it on Kanan and Hera."

"That's not fair to you," said Hera. "Either we all go, or we wait until we're sure." She turned to Sabine. "How sure are you?"

Sabine made a noncommittal gesture, and realized Hera couldn't see her. "Kind of sure."

Hera said, "Let's just try."

"Wait," said Kanan, and he turned and headed towards the 'fresher.

"Now you have to use it?" Hera said, but the rest saw him rummaging around.

"What are you looking for?" Ezra asked.

"A mirror."

Sabine went to her own cabin and came out with a small mirror. The one she must use to help dye her hair, Kallus thought, as she handed it to Kanan. He held it up and looked into it for a long moment. Then he handed it back. "Thanks." He went and stood next to Hera, taking her hand.

"What was that all about?" she asked him.

"I haven't seen you in over a year. I wanted one last good look." He squeezed her hand. "Sabine?"

"Here goes," she said, and activated the device.

Kallus expected pain, but there was only mild vertigo as he suddenly stared at them all from a slightly different position. His own hand rested on Zeb's arm, and they fell against one another, then looked at each other and laughed with relief. Behind him he heard Kanan's slight sigh.

"And we're back," he said, the old sarcastic tone back in his voice. He looked at Hera next to him. "That was fun while it lasted."

"Sorry it couldn't have been longer," she said, and pressed her hand against his face before turning to Sabine. "Thank you. You did great."

Chopper beeped that he had helped and deserved some praise, too.

Ezra sniffed. "It smells like something's burning."

"Yeah," said Sabine. "Not sure it would work again."

"Let's not try," said Zeb. On that, they could all agree.

* * *

They were headed back to Yavin. Hera was back flying her ship, where she was happiest. Kanan had joined her in the cockpit, where he was also happiest. The two teenagers had gone to the galley to find food. The Force alone knew where the droid had wheeled off to. Kallus found Zeb in his own cabin, resting.

"Hi."

"You can come in," Zeb said, not opening his eyes.

He stepped inside. The cabin door slid shut without his touch. "Sorry."

"The door's like that sometimes. I think Chopper must've rigged it." One eye slid open. "You all right?"

"You keep asking me that."

"You keep not being all right. It's a good question to ask."

"I'm fine. It was a very strange day. You said most of your missions are like this?"

"Lot of 'em, yeah. Today was good, though. Nobody died."

Kallus supposed that counted as one of their more successful outings. "Can we talk about what happened?"

"No." Zeb closed his eye.

"Oh." Kallus closed his lips tightly together. He turned to leave.

Zeb said, "But if you come over here, we can try it again. You know, see what it's like from the other side?" His eyes were still closed, but he had the faintest smile on his face. Kallus had spent all day wearing that face. He knew how Zeb felt from inside now, an unthinkable intimacy.

He could think of plenty of other intimacies they might attempt.

"I imagine it will be much the same as before." He tried to keep his voice steady and casual.

"Bet you it's completely different."

He walked the few steps over to the bunk and knelt down. The stories of his childhood included tales much like this: the sleeping princess in her bed, and the prince leaning over her to press his lips against hers. The stories hadn't included overlarge male Lasats, and the rooms had been flower-laden bowers, not dark, cramped starship cabins that smelled distressingly of teenage boy. Still, the principle was the same. Practically the same. Broad strokes, certainly.

Kallus bent in and kissed him to find out which of them was right, although as they touched, he decided that part didn't matter at all.


End file.
